Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

KPBS Midday Edition Segments

San Diego Weekend Arts Events: To The Earth Festival, Sidro Saturdays, 'The Mango Tree,' Xenos And Art Alive

 June 18, 2021 at 10:03 AM PDT

Speaker 1: 00:00 This weekend in the arts, you'll find plenty of outdoor music, art theater, and even flowers to indulge the senses and with pandemic restrictions lifted and some uncertainty about what's out there and what you need to plan ahead for KPBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon. Evans is here with all the details. Welcome Julia. Speaker 2: 00:20 Hi Claire. Thanks for having me to start. Speaker 1: 00:23 There's lots to do in Balboa park. This weekend, let's start with art alive, which is San Diego museum of arts beloved flower show. It's back this year, but things look a little different, right? Speaker 2: 00:35 Right. So there's no big bloom bash this year, but at least it's not entirely virtual, like last year, as well as they're installing floral sculptures inside the museum. These are the type that are inspired by their works from the museum's collection. And yes, the museum is open and they are still requiring masks. By the way, you can reserve time spots to visit for art alive, to avoid any sort of line as well on the half hour or on the hour. And it costs 25 to get inside for adults. Kids are free or they're $5. If they're teens and for a $40 ticket, you'll also get to go into the open air floral affair, which is new this year. That's in the Plaza de Panama, which is open from 10 to 8:00 PM tonight and Saturday, and then until six on Sunday. So they'll have large scale floral works there, there's a marketplace crafts and art projects for kids that's happening from noon to four every day, and then also food. And these fancy floral inspired coffee drinks, those Instagram worthy color changing types of fancy drinks. And two artists are also installing some contemporary sculptures outside. It's kind of a cool activation of the Plaza they're bringing in Rachel Hayes and Davis McHardy for that. There's also some virtual workshops and stuff you can experience from home too. And it's all free for a museum member Speaker 1: 02:03 And art alive officially opens at San Diego museum of art to the public today through Sunday. Then if you go to Balbo park on Saturday, there are some dune teenth celebrations in the park, both part of the, say it loud festival of black theater and art. So tell us where we can find it and what we can see. Speaker 2: 02:21 Yeah, so the old globe, they have their free access Juneteenth event and that's on their outdoor festival stage. It's free, but you do need to get a ticket reservation in advance. That's at noon from noon to one 15, they'll have performances from members of the San Diego, black artists, collective, um, dancers, musicians. They're doing scenes from some short plays. And this is also the first time that outdoor festival stage has been used for a live performance since 2019. It was last used for the Shakespeare festival that year, and then across the, the same group San Diego back artists collective is hosting artists for black lives. It's a community event and it's the second annual one of these. They have music performers, art vendors, and more, and that's over by the pepper Grove playground beginning at 1:00 PM. Speaker 1: 03:15 So two Juneteenth events on Saturday at Bobo park to experience music, theater and dance from local black artists, the old globe at noon and artists for black lives at 1:00 PM. Then in the rock and roll world, there's an outdoor album release and show by a pretty unconventional band. Tell us about Xenos. Speaker 2: 03:36 Yeah. So this is a fictional band. It's from local filmmaker and the Casbah bar manager, Ben Johnson, his recent film fan boy, the soundtrack for this movie was really great with a lot of local bands, but they also wrote and performed original songs as Xenos throughout the movie. And that's who we'll be playing this weekend at the Krakatoa parking lot in golden hill on Saturday at 3:00 PM, the album will be available on vinyl and that will have the actual soundtrack on it with songs from bands like black heart procession, hot snakes, the have nots and tons more. And of course, Xenos, here's a little taste of them. [inaudible] Speaker 1: 04:37 Xenos. Who'll come to life and play an afternoon outdoor show at Krakatoa in golden hill, Saturday at 3:00 PM. If you're looking to stay home, there's a virtual concert from the San Diego symphony part of the, to the earth festival. So tell us about this. Speaker 2: 04:53 Yeah, so the symphony partnered with the great Steven Schick. He's an iconic contemporary percussionist and a long time UC San Diego music professor he's inventive and thoughtful as a curator. And it shows in this project it's inspired by the daily cycle of the planet. There's three performances total. And the first is tonight. This one's called morning birds and light, and it's actually kind of literal about morning birds and light they'll pair music with poetry like from us poet Laureate, Joey Harjo and compositions by a pretty broad range of composers, including heighten a piece by a French composer, Olivia [inaudible] and contemporary American composer, John Luther Adams, his work songbird songs, which is pretty remarkable. And it's based on his study of songbirds. Speaker 1: 05:42 The symphony is free virtual to the earth festival kicks off tonight at 7:00 PM online. And finally, I hear you have a father's day arts recommendation, what's happening at the maritime museum on Sunday. Yeah. Speaker 2: 05:55 So the Houseman quartet, they're doing a free mini version of their heightened voyages shows that's on the Berkeley ship. That's part of the maritime. And this show is only going to be 30 minutes long, which is nice to know if you're roping reluctant family members into it. And it's also free with museum admission. So you get a chance to explore the maritime as well too. The music they're playing is really interesting as well. And I will leave you with one of the compositions. It's one that Houseman has done before California contemporary composer, Caroline Shaw's the Len SIA Speaker 3: 06:56 [inaudible] [inaudible] Haussmann Speaker 1: 07:08 Quartet performs a mini concert on the deck of the maritime museum Sunday at 4:00 PM. And it's free with museum admission. You can find details on these and more arts events or sign up for Julia's weekly KPBS arts newsletter@kpbs.org slash arts. I've been speaking with KPBS arts editor and producer, Julia Dixon, Evans, and Julia. Thank you. Thank you, Claire. Have a great weekend.

Our weekend arts picks include classical music honoring the planet, a fictional band comes to life, SDMA gets the floral treatment, a new San Ysidro art crawl and a Black playwright's world premiere.
KPBS Midday Edition Segments